Sweden: Number 1 Place to Be a Kid, Number 4 Place to Be a Mom

There has never been any doubt in my mind that Sweden is a great place to start a family, and Save The Children's latest study only confirms that.

Although I am a little weary of the quanitification of children's well-being – I love the freedom, care and ability to 'just be a kid' that seems to be an essential part of Swedish childhood. That and the access to quality health care without the stress of worrying about being hit by strange bills, quality daycare, schools (although I'm still not 100% sold on the Swedish approach to education), and University education.

As for being a Mom – well what can you say – I'm still enoying several days a week of maternity leave.

Back in the US when people would start talking about Family Values I would usually check out because I figured the conversation would segway into religion and traditional values – something that isn't too high on my priority list. But living in Sweden has really shown me the importance of Swedish Family Values – and that is TIME with your FAMILY!

I think if Save the Children also had a 'Best Place to Be a Dad' Sweden would at least make the Top 5, if not the top spot.

Sadly the US fell into the 30s in both categories. (ETA UK was in the teens)

Check out the study here.  

Fun Swedish Names!

One of the big challenges when having a baby in a multicultural family is choosing names that aren't too hard to pronounce, don't have strange foreign meanings, and both parties seem to like.

In Sweden they have this crazy rule that you actually have to have your child's name approved by the government before it is official. While this might be good for preventing children ending up with urban legand names like Female or Shithead, the Swedish government has been a stickler, surprisingly, for things like 'gender appropriate' names (No girls named Michael or Billy – No boys named Sue).

That means fun Swedish names are not all that crazy, but they are still fun.

I still don't know why whenever I mention to a Swede my age that Kai is one of my all-time favorite Swedish male names, I get a giggle or a funny look. Whatever. Kai is an awesome name. But sadly it was not given the seal of approval by my Swede and thus there are no little Kais in our family.

My favorite baffling Swedish name is one of the few girls names on the list:

Lillemor – This name means 'Little Mother.' Now I realize it is a rather old-fashioned and outdated name that hasn't become popular again amongst all of the new little Signes and Beas and Ingas (yes, we know some baby Ingas) – but I cannot imagine anyone looking down at their brand new little baby girl and thinking 'I shall call her Little Mother.'

Other names I enjoy:

Björn: means Bear – not unheard of in the states, I met a few Björns there. My favorite moment in My Sweet Sixteen is where the boy named Björn insists on being called Bezhourn.

Knut: This means knot. I like it a lot. A boy named knot.

Karl: This means man. A strange name for a little baby – but Man? Why not? I really like the nickname for Karl – Kalle.

I know a lot of English names have fun and crazy meanings, but mostly the meanings are derived from other languages. The fun with these names is also that they are the words you use in every day language. If you have a knot in your shoelace you have a Knut in your shoelace.

It's a bit like Stone Phillips or Rock Hudson.

I'm sure there are more fun Swedish names. But I can't think of them at the moment. What are your favorites?  

Drinking in Sweden – It's a Numbers Game

Do you know how much alcohol is in the beer that you drink? If you do – you probably are in Sweden (or perhaps Utah?). Or you really pay a lot of attention to your beer.

I like beer – a nice Corona or Weissbeer in the summer or something dark and rich in the autumn or winter. When I lived in the States I would often grab a six-pack during my weekly grocery store trip and keep it in the fridge for the week, having the occasional beer or offering it to guests.

But since moving to Sweden, I've needed to give a LOT more thought to my beer purchases – more than I really feel I should need. See, at first I just grabbed a six-pack from the grocery store. Until one of my Swedish friends commented 'Oh, that's not beer.' That was news to me, because it looked like beer and tasted like beer. But no. This was 'near-beer.' This beer had only 3.5% alcohol in it.

OK. So all of a sudden I started paying a lot more attention to how much alcohol was in the beer I liked. Most had about 4.5% occasionally one or two had 5.5%.

But I did start wondering about how much everything cost – did I want the biggest bang for my buck? Did I want flavor? Did I want the inconvenience of having to deal with Systembolaget? Did I want the calories?

All I really wanted was a nice six-pack. Which is how I found myself last week nursing a 3.2% Corona in my backyard. Because I couldn't be bothered to head to the liqour store on the other side of town. Because I just wanted a nice beer in the sunshine.

As someone who enjoys the occasional drink – but doesn't like being drunk – I find the hardest thing about the Swedish alcohol bearacracy is the amount of time I have to spend thinking and figuring out how/when to get my alcohol. It feels like I am underage again trying to figure out how to get some Boones.

And I will admit that in researching this article I was surprised to find that most American Light beers only have a tiny fraction more alcohol than Swedish 3.5% beer. And that 4 states in the US have similarly bizarre alcohol laws – selling low-point beer (3.2%).

Amazing Moment in Swedish Music History

OK, so after my ComHem breakdown and online rant - I really needed a pick me up. So I dug around a little bit and found this. And danced around the kitchen to it far too many times for it not to be embarrassing.

What can I say, Peps always makes me smile - even in darkest weather. And Oh Boy! Vilken vacker   skånska!  (ETA: eller vilken vacker skånska eller kanske härlig skånska?)

Swedish Broadband Fail: How Did I Let COMHEM Pull One Over On Me Again?

Is there a cable/broadband company that people actually enjoy sending their money to, out there? Because today I was going to write about something completely different until I realized that ComHem, my internet/telephone/cable provider completely conned me again.

I feel a bit like George Bush – Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me can't be fooled again. And so here I am, playing the fool.

See, they have this nasty habit of changing the deal you agree to and hoping you don't notice. I thought it was a mistake last time we extended our contract with them, when the bill reflected something that we did not agree to.

But this time? This time I got it in writing, on a piece of paper, the agreement we negotiated with one of THEIR salesmen. And what do I get? Oh no, they expect me to pay what they think I should pay – which is their standard agreement, and not the deal we were given, which involved a bunch of free months.

Last time they were nice enough to just cancel the whole damn thing and let me try again. But this time they say I have to officially complain – or reklamera. That's fine, because last time it was a verbal agreement, and this time it is a signed contract-with the deal in writing.

But I don't want to waste my time anymore.

The sad things is, we kept them because we have no idea what a better alternative might be. It feels like picking my poison.

I can't say I know if it would be much better in the US. But I do know that one time I called to complain about internet disruption to ComHem, they told me that it would normally take 4-6 weeks to get someone to my house, if it wasn't a problem affecting the area. But since it was summer it would probably take a lot longer.

Man, I really am the fool here, aren't I?

Swedish Restaurants: The Tapas Scam

OK, as I've written here before I'm not the biggest fan of Swedish cuisine and there are very few Swedish restaurants I think are worth the price of admission. A lot of this may be because I am vegetarian. While most Swedish restaurants have a veggie option, these options are often thought out by people who are obviously not vegetarian (a trait not unique to Swedish vegetarian cooking, and only shows that I am spoiled by growing up so close to NYC).

That said, there has been a trend for the last two years towards what I refer to as 'The Tapas Scam,' which has caused our list of possible restaurants for a nice night out to halve over the course of last year.

I realize Tapas is probably a wonderful thing to try while in Spain, or even at a fine Spanish style restaurant in Sweden specializing in Spanish food. But Swedish tapas, vegetarian style, are tiny plates of easily prepared cheap food for insane prices. For example, when one of our favorite regular restaurants went 'tapas' I ordered the garlic bread, halloumi, and soup. I got 3 slices of white bread with garlic butter, three slices of halloumi fried in olive oil, and a nice little cup of tomato soup, which wasn't bad, but wasn't anything to write home about. Each little plate would have cost 65-70SEk if ordered alone, but they cost 150SEK because I ordered them as an order of three.

Now lets say I was at a normal restaurant, even a normal Swedish restaurant. I might order a side of garlic bread with my Italian food. This side would usually be twice the size of my tapas bread, and cost about 35 SEK. If I had halloumi, it would normally be atop a salad, or sandwich, and thus be a bit more filling for the cost of 65-75 SEK. And a cup of soup? It usually ends up being about 65-75 SEK, but is often a bit bigger, and includes bread.

I get that it must be insanely expensive to run a restaurant in Sweden. I get that the overhead must make the owners cry on a regular basis. But what I don't get is why I have to pay through the roof for things even I, a rather basic chef, can produce at home with little to no effort or fanfare.

I cannot wait for this Tapas trend to be a blip in the memory of Sweden's strange culinary world.  

It's the Day Before a Holiday – Go Home!

It's true – if you've got a pretty good Union agreement at your workplace, anyway (something I've never been able to manage). Tomorrow is Good Friday, or more aptly named in Swedish, Long Friday. It is an official Swedish holiday, which means most places of business are closed tomorrow. Today is the day before that – which means many places have a half day at work.

You wouldn't notice here. Well, I am on maternity leave today, and The Swede is working away and will probably be so for the rest of the weekend.

But the weather is BEAUTIFUL! Which means I will be spending the rest of the day outdoors.

Hope you can too!